WildEarth Guardians

Friday, January 13, 2012
Feds Refuse $35,000 Offer to Keep Cows off Valles Caldera Preserve

WildEarth Guardians says its plan would have saved the government money and accelerated recovery from the Las Conchas Fire.
Contact: Bryan Bird (505) 988-9126 x1157

Jemez Springs, NM – The Valles Caldera National Preserve announced that it will reject $35,000 offered by WildEarth Guardians to keep the preserve free of domestic livestock. Following the largest fire in New Mexico’s recorded history, WildEarth Guardians was hopeful this would be the year the preserve managers would accept their ecologically and economically sensible bid. Instead the Preserve’s board accepted a proposal to graze cows that will harm fragile riparian areas and erode recovering soils.

“We are disappointed that the Valles Caldera National Preserve will again have cows grazing its magnificent landscapes,” said Bryan Bird, WildEarth Guardians Wild Places Program Director.  “The Preserve is priceless, a jewel in America’s collection of public lands and it deserves full protection.”

Federal law established the Valles Caldera National Preserve to protect and preserve the area's scientific, scenic, geologic, watershed, fish, wildlife, historic, cultural, and recreational values. The Valles Caldera Trust was created to carry out the Preserve's mission and to turn a profit. The Santa-Fe based WildEarth Guardians’ bid would have done just that: make money while protecting the Preserve.

Guardians will continue to work to keep cows out of the area and return the streamside habitats to their verdant nature. The Preserve and Guardians have teamed up in recent years to accomplish ecological restoration of streamside forests, water quality and beaver habitat. That relationship will continue despite the rejected offer.

According to nearly all the climate models, the Southwest has become, and will continue to become, a drier and warmer place. Nearly 30,000 acres of the Valles Caldera National Preserve burned this past summer in the Las Conchas Fire.  Twenty-five percent of that was in the grasslands. Grazing domestic livestock places additional stress on already strained hydrological systems, rivers and streams. The Preserve is recovering well by all indications, but returning domestic livestock to the valleys could inhibit recovery.

“In the long-term the fire will have many beneficial effects on the ecosystems of the Valles Caldera National Preserve,” said Bird. “But putting cows back onto the splendid valleys will only be more destructive. This incredible landscape needs time to fully recover from the fire”